New Garden Community Church

Unitarian Universalist Faith Community

on Chicago's Near West Side

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."    - Rev. Theodore Parker, 1859

 

 

 

 

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Social Justice Programs...

Peace  *  Adult Literacy  *  Worker Justice

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. offered a kind of Decalogue (Ten Commandments) to members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and volunteers for the Civil Rights movement, during the Birmingham campaign for voting rights: 

I hereby pledge myself - my person and my body - to the nonviolent movement.  Therefore I will keep the following commandments:

Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.

Remember always that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation - not victory.

Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.

Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men [and women] might be free.

Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men [and women] might be free.

Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.

Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.

Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.

Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.

Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration.

(quoted in the Jan '05 Shambhala Sun)

Peace

New Garden works with United for Peace - Faithful Citizenship, an interfaith coalition working for peace - teaching and holding discussions of peace and non-violence, and non-violent witnessing for peace.  

An interfaith gathering to mark the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, at the Chicago Methodist Temple:  Jean and UCC colleague Catiana McKay carry a banner to Grant Park.

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Adult Literacy

Cathedral Shelter runs a far-seeing program to prevent homelessness.  Among other services, the shelter offers job readiness, literacy and ESL training.  

New Garden supports the shelter by contributing our time as volunteer literacy coaches.  To learn about getting trained, see the Cathedral Shelter website, http://www.cathedralshelter.org/.

 

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Worker Justice 

The Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues (CICWI, 773-728-8400) works to empower low-wage workers through:

The Worker Rights Center, which has gotten back wages of over a million dollars from recalcitrant employers, and provides daily help to workers with questions about their rights on the job;  

Campaigns:  have helped hotel workers, day laborers, bakery and factory workers achieve justice through clergy intervention and mediation;  

The Building Bridges Program, which helps minorities and women get into the union building trades, by running pre-apprenticeship review classes around the Chicago area in local churches.  

 

Below, CICWI supports workers at the Congress Hotel, where workers have been walking the picket line for over two years.  Rev. Jean and other clergy join picketers.
 

 

Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC)

The national UUJEC (

Locally, Chicago area UUs send out legislative action alerts and give workshops to churches and community groups.   (http://www.uusforsocialjustice.org/uusforsocialjustice_home_page.htm).

To sign up for email action alerts about homeless or economic justice issues, including local actions, events, and letters to Congress or the Illinois legislature, go to: http://lists.sandwich.net/mailman/admin.cgi/ChicUU_JustEcon

And we support Jobs with Justice, in their work for Chicago low wage workers. (http://www.chicagojwj.org)

 

 

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